Still Not Happy
by Sarah1281
Summary: On Jotunheim, Loki discovers that Thor is a Frost Giant before Thor is banished to Midgard for going there and attacking. With Thor disgraced and banished and a Frost Giant to boot, Loki should be elated. Somehow he's not.


Still Not Happy

Loki had not been having a good day. He had definitely not been having a good few weeks and, if pressed, couldn't swear that he could remember having a good past few centuries though that could just be the horror talking.

Thor was going to be king even though it was obvious that he wasn't ready for it right now (and might not ever be ready for it, honestly) and so Loki had had to take some drastic action and somehow or another they had ended up on Jotunheim and then…

"Yes, Loki, you wanted to see me?" Odin asked distractedly as he swept into the room.

"Is Thor a Frost Giant?"

Normally Loki preferred to be a bit more subtle but this was perhaps the most important question he had ever been asked.

Odin looked suddenly much older. "How did you…oh, I suppose you must have seen something on Jotunheim."

Loki nodded. "One of the Frost Giants touched him and his arm turned blue. I was concerned because their touch had been shown to burn but all it did was turn his arm blue."

"Thor didn't mention anything," Odin murmured, half to himself. "I know I did not give him the chance to say much but all he wanted to talk about was fighting. I never would have sent him down alone if I had known he had just discovered his heritage."

"I don't believe he noticed," Loki assured him. "You know how Thor gets when it comes to battle."

Odin sighed. "Small mercies, that."

"How did it happen?" Loki demanded. "Am I a Frost Giant as well?"

He had wondered that from the moment he saw Thor's arm change color but that wasn't the sort of thing he wanted to test. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know, for one thing, and he was worried about what would happen if Laufey had discovered it. Would that provoke a war more surely than Thor had? Would he kidnap Loki and hold him prisoner and pretend that he had any right to because Loki happened to be born in Jotunheim? Loki would put nothing past that man. It had been so easy to lure his people to Asgard without Loki even revealing himself. And it was highly unnecessary to warn Thor that there were traitors in the house of Odin. It wasn't even true, anyway. What he had done had been for the good of Asgard and so clearly not treason at all.

Odin shook his head. "No. When I returned with Thor your mother had given birth to you."

Loki let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "What happened?"

"In the aftermath of the battle I went into the temple and I found a baby," Odin said distantly. "Small for a Giant's offspring, abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son."

Loki's eyes widened. Thor as a Frost Giant he could barely wrap his mind around (he looked far more like their parents than he himself did) but this was even more absurd. "_Laufeyson_?"

Odin simply nodded. "Yes."

"Why?" Loki asked, trying to understand. "You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take him?"

"He was an innocent child."

"I'm sure there were a lot of innocent children. You took him for a purpose? What was it?"

It took Odin a very long time to answer that but finally he spoke. "I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace... through Thor."

That hadn't been what Loki had been expecting though what it was he thought he'd hear he didn't know. Thor? Interacting in any positive way with the Frost Giants? He'd as soon as kill them all as look at one. If that were truly Odin's ambition then he had severely misjudged a few things. "What?"

"But those plans no longer matter," Odin insisted.

No, of course they didn't. Why would Odin need to waste Thor on Jotunheim when it had been quiet for as long as Loki could even remember when clearly Thor the golden son had to be handed the throne of Asgard. If Loki had been the Jotun he'd probably have been sent to Jotunheim by now without a second thought.

It had always irked him growing up how much Thor was like their father when he didn't seem to have anything in common with the man (save the basic ability to plan ahead that Thor still hadn't managed to pick up). Thor was the Asgardian ideal, everyone always said that. Everyone loved him and they wanted him to be their king from the very beginning. Loki was different. He was Asgardian but he was more intellectual than athletic and more into tricks than bluntness. Sometimes he used to wonder if he were switched at birth and belonged in some other realm.

And Thor was the one who didn't belong all this time. How ironic. But it wasn't that Thor didn't belong. Rather that he was simply born in the wrong place and found his way to his people. Loki tried to imagine Thor living in the cold wasteland of Jotunheim that he had just seen and simply couldn't do it. Thor would die there.

Odin was watching him anxiously. "Loki?"

What? Ah, right. He had just been told of Thor's secret origin and Odin wanted to know how he felt about it. Well he couldn't even begin to guess at that because even with what he had seen it was still so impossible. He would have figured that, if one of them had to be a Frost Giant, it would be him but that was not the case.

He knew that he should say something about how Thor was his brother and so it didn't matter and he still cared for him and hoped that one day he would return from his exile or something like that but there was truthfully only one thought that kept running through his mind.

"You would rather put a Frost Giant on the throne of Asgard than me?"

Odin looked taken aback. "No, that's not it at all!"

"Isn't it?" Loki asked rhetorically. "Thor's coronation was supposed to be today. He and I were the only two beings raised to be princes and as such the only two choices. You chose him to be king and not me."

Odin looked uncomfortable. "Well, he was older."

"And not even an Aesir. So how is the fact that you chose a Frost Giant to be king over me not exactly what happened?" Loki demanded.

Odin hesitated. "I suppose that it is not technically inaccurate but you're really looking at this the wrong way."

"Why are you so against me being king?" Loki asked. It was actually a little ridiculous. Yes he was a little different but he was hardly unskilled and certainly more prepared for ruling than his brother was."At this point it's appearing almost pathological. Do you hate me or something?"

"Of course I don't hate you; you're being ridiculous."

"Excellent job persuading me that you don't hate me," Loki deadpanned. "What do you really think I'd do if I ended up on the throne?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," Odin said. "But I'm sure it would all work out fine."

"Why haven't you thought about it? How are you supposed to decide if Thor or I would make a better king without thinking about it? Surely you wouldn't be so reckless as to choose at random! Was Thor just so obviously the better king of Asgard, despite not even being of Asgard, that you didn't even have to consider it?"

"Thor's been the popular choice for years and having him on the throne certainly sends a message about the Frost Giants," Odin said.

"How popular would he be if you actually sent that message to anybody and told them he was a Frost Giant?" Loki challenged.

Odin stroked his beard. "I've actually been thinking about that. If it comes out at just the right time in just the right way then maybe it could work."

"You would have someone not of your blood on the throne. You would remove your descendents from succession and have Asgard forever ruled by the house of Laufey!" Loki accused. "Even if Thor marries Sif he'll still only have half-Aesir babies and they still won't share blood with you."

"There are things more important than that."

"You wanted a Frost Giant on the throne instead of me even when said Frost Giant would gladly get us all killed soothing his bruised ego," Loki said flatly. "You were there today. He called you a fool."

"And I was a fool to have thought he was ready," Odin said tiredly.

"Will you call him back if he doesn't prove himself worthy?"

"I have no doubt that eventually he will, it is only a question of when," Odin replied.

"You were prepared to give up the throne this very morning," Loki said. "And now you know just how unsuitable Thor is for the throne and how he may never come back. And he is still, might I add, a Frost Giant while I am your actual son and an actual Asgardian."

"Thor is every bit my son as you are," Odin said fiercely.

"I feel like you're trying to say that as a compliment to Thor but it's coming out more like you're insulting me," Loki said. "What will you do now? Will I be allowed anywhere near the throne or are you going to wait to save it for a Frost Giant to sit in?"

"I was prepared to give it up today, you are right, but clearly I acted overly hastily. I still have some years left in me and I was so wrong about Thor that I do not want to make any sudden decisions, especially of this magnitude. I will need to take some time and reevaluate everything in my life and then we shall see."

But it was perfectly fine to act rashly and banish Thor possibly forever. At least he hadn't gotten in trouble. Maybe it was the first ever instance of actually favoring his actual son.

Loki smiled wanly. "Of course."

He took his leave of Odin and went to the library to escape his friends' whining about Thor's well-earned banishment. Hours later when he got the news that Odin had gone into the Odinsleep again, he discovered that Frigga was entrusting the throne to him. Maybe now he could finally show his father what he was capable of and that he could be a perfectly good king.

Otherwise if Thor never got his act together Odin might start looking for a dwarf to adopt or something.


End file.
